PLN 4

Today I read an article by Will Richardson. The title of this article is Students Pay A Price (Literally) For Cell Phone Use and in this article it talks about at some schools students aren't aloud to have their cell phones because the school thinks that it is a disruption. If the students are caught with their phones in school, then their phone is taken away until Friday, when a parent can come pick it up. But the students can't leave home without their cell phones because they need it for saftey and several other things. The only way they can keep their phone at school is to check it in and pay $3 for the school to hold it, and then get it after school.

What matters:
Richardson talks in his article that students shouldn't have to pay for them to take their phones to school because the cell phone can actually be very helpful. Students can use it for educational purposes also. He thinks that they should be able to bring it to school and actually use them in class. Now alot of schools won't agree with this because they think that it is a big distraction and is only used for social networking. That is also why Myspace is banned from schools even though Myspace isn't only used for social networking. But the fact that they are making teens pay $3 per day just to take their cell phone to school is just not right. Teens don't have alot of money and so whenever they do get money they try to spend it on entertainment. The rule about cell phones probably won't change anytime soon, because sometimes cell phone are used only for txting people during class.

What matters to me:
I half agree with Richardson. I think that it is ridiculous that teens have to pay so much for them to bring their cell phones to school, but I don't agree with him when he says that cell phones could be used in school. Sometimes when adults try to figure out ways to use all types of technology in school it doesn't really work out because if students were aloud to have cell phones in class, then they probably would be texting people the whole time. The same with Myspace. Nearly all my friends have Myspaces and they use it only to talk to friends. Not for anything educational. I think that the rules that our school has about cell phone use is good. They don't mind if you use your cell phone as long as your not in class, but when your texting in class then you will get your phone taken away and then your punishment is up to the teacher. I know that if AHS let us use our phones in class I would be texting all my friends. That is the only thing I use my cell phone for. That might change in the future but for now I don't think that the rules will change.